Local documentary about cross country coach suffering from disease to debut at Tiburon Film Festival on Thursday

After University cross country runner Holland Reynolds crawled across the finish line at the high school championships in 2010, her story — and that of coach Jim Tracy, who had recently been diagnosed with ALS — went viral.

When the documentary film "Running for Jim" debuts at the Tiburon Film Festival on April 16, producers Robin Hauser Reynolds of Belvedere, and Tiburon's Dan and Judy Noyes, are hoping to channel that fame towards an overlooked subject: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

"My whole goal from the beginning was to raise awareness," said Hauser Reynolds, Holland Reynolds' mother. "To deflect attention away from Holland, who never felt like she deserved it anyway, to this horrible disease ... and to Jim Tracy, who's such an unusual man and has formed such a bond with his athletes, who will go to any length just for him."

Hauser Reynolds began the project with another direction but parted ways after six months, and as fate would have it she crossed paths with the Noyes — Dan, an anchor and reporter for ABC 7 news in San Francisco, and his wife Judy, who has a background in television and production as well.

"It was a perfect fit, because we all brought different things to the table," Judy Noyes said. "The whole thing, I think it just gelled."

It wasn't just another project for her, either. Judy's late father was diagnosed with ALS and she saw her opportunity to help promote what is largely still a mysterious disease.

"We're so excited that it's raising awareness and not just through the general public, but through the younger generations," she said. "It affects the younger generations. If you can get the word out, maybe we can find a cure earlier."

It's been 75 years since Yankees legend Lou Gehrig made his shocking announcement to the world, and in the time since there have been little to no advancements made towards finding a cure or even a successful treatment.

"You find out how little they know, how little they've done"... it kind of shocks you," said Tracy, who now coaches the University team on an unpaid, volunteer basis.

It's with Tracy that the story begins. Four years before his diagnosis, he started to notice things weren't right, and when he finally took himself to the doctor his worst fears were confirmed.

It's been three years since his diagnosis, and his focus has remained right where it's been all along, on coaching his runners and helping each one reach his or her full potential.

"I always consider my true value as being to others," he said.

It's that kind of selfless dedication that motivates his athletes, as thousands of people all around the world saw in the video of Holland Reynolds inching towards the finish line on her hands and knees.

"What makes a 16-year-old do that?" Dan Noyes mused. "After talking to Jim, I knew there was a lot more to the story."

Noyes, who acted as co-director with Hauser Reynolds, wrote the script, which also includes the story of Corey Smith, a 21-year-old who has been diagnosed with ALS.

With Hauser Reynolds at the helm of the project, Tracy granted the team, which included producer Staci Hartman, editor Lou Wirth, and co-producer/co-director David Brown, nearly unlimited access to his life.

"It was an incredible, painstaking process," Dan Noyes said. "We spent a lot of time with him, going to his clinic visits "... we spent a ton of time with him."

It's a project that's almost three years in the making, and now it's time to send their creation out into the world.

"It's been an obsession for two years "... a really life changing experience," Hauser Reynolds said. "It feels fabulous (to be finished). It's also a little nerve-wracking. Now I have to worry about whether people are going to like it or not."

With showings in film festivals across the country, and even around the world, that won't be much of an issue.

When the box office opened for the April 16 screening, tickets sold out that day. The Tiburon Playhouse, where the film will be shown, offered them another showing — which then sold out in about an hour and a half.

"Thanks to the internet, the story's gotten out," she said. "To me more than anything, that feels great."

With a central character like Tracy, it's hard to be anything less than fascinated.

"This guy is a character. That comes across in the film," Dan Noyes said. "He's a really quirky character who cared less about the creature comforts. All he cared about was running and coaching these kids."

Tracy had initial reservations about being so heavily featured in the film, for one simple reason: He doesn't think he's that interesting.

"When Robin told me that she was going to submit (the film to festivals), I thought, 'good luck,'" he said. "I don't think of myself as star material. ... I was very much impressed that they could film me and make me look so good."

Tracy may be modest, but it's a fact that he's been the star of dozens of athletes lives, whether directly impacting them as coach or simply by the story of his perseverance.

"He keeps his head up so much," Dan Noyes said. "I've never seen him get depressed. He's moving forward. He's really taking it each day at a time. He wants to be an example for his kids. He's there for the kids and they surely are there for him."

"By being involved with other people it takes our minds off ourselves," Tracy said. "I don't have high hopes for me, but I do have high hopes for everyone I coach and that allows me to be lifted by the whole situation."

It's an interesting parallel, Hauser Reynolds noted, that finds Tracy's runners — full of hopes and dreams and unrealized potential — intersecting with Tracy himself, who is on a downward trajectory.

It's a bit of a culture shock for many of them, Noyes said.

"They don't have to face the prospect of death from someone that close, Dan Noyes said, "and here they have someone very close to him, a coach, he may die from this disease while he's there."

The story, Hauser Reynolds said, is about that connection, and "how he's influenced these kids to become fabulous runners, how his dealing with ALS has inspired these kids."

Some of them have seen the entire progression, from diagnosis to where Tracy is at today.

"It's really been a poignant lesson for these teenagers to see their coach to go from running with them three or four years ago, to coaching from a wheelchair," Hauser Reynold said.

Tracy's still able to drive, and does have that wheelchair to help move around, but he said it's a strange situation.

"It's like slowly sliding down a cliff," he said. "You're not falling, you're just sliding, and the only thing you're certain of is when you hit the bottom it's going to hurt."

Until he reaches that bottom, however, he's going to keep doing what he's doing — changing lives.

"Maybe it'll get some good reviews," he hoped, and will serve as an opening for others to speak out about the disease.

"People who are suffering quietly (maybe) will unite with other people, speak out if they still can," he said.

All of the proceeds generated by the film and the group's fundraising efforts will go towards ALS research and a special needs trust set up for Tracy, Dan Noyes said.

 Info: Online at www. tiburonfilmfestival.com or call 251-8433 'Running for Jim': Shows in Tiburon April 16 and 18. Also at SoHo Fesitval in New York on Tuesday, at the SF DocFest (showings TBA between June 6-20). On the Web at www.runningforjim.com